A Marionville, Mo., liquor store clerk was working his shift on Sunday night when a would-be robber walked in smoking a cigarette, according to WUSA.

When Jon Lewis Alexander told him to put it out, the man reportedly told Alexander to handover the cash in his register.

Instead, Alexander "used his left hand to push the robber's handgun back while -- in a smooth but rapid motion -- pulling and swinging his 9 mm into the robber's face," WUSA reports. The man then walked out of the store without causing any further ruckus.

Store owner Jeannine Dawson told the News-Leader that only Alexander, a veteran and former prison guard, is allowed to take a gun to work.

"I don’t know what I would say if someone else asked to carry a gun,” Dawson said. “Jon’s the exception.”

The Kansas City Star reports that police are still looking for the would-be robber.

George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed and visiting his father's fiancee's home. Zimmerman called police shortly before the incident and said, "We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy." The killing brought attention to the so-called "stand your ground laws." <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/zimmerman-stand-your-ground_n_1759532.html">Zimmerman's lawyers have argued</a> that the second-degree murder charge against him should be dropped on the grounds that he "reasonably believed" he might be killed or suffer "great bodily harm" at the hands of Martin. (AP Photo/State Attorney's Office, File)